KANSAS CITY, Mo. _ The Royals showed a bit of their late-inning magic and pulled back to the .500 mark on Friday night.
Trailing 4-1 in the ninth inning, the Royals scored four times, thanks in large part to the bottom of the lineup and stunned the Blue Jays, 5-4, in front of a sold-out crowd at Kauffman Stadium.
The Royals, 36-36, got back to .500 for the first time since April 19 when they were 7-7.
Toronto led 2-1 going to the ninth inning and tacked on pair of runs against Joakim Soria gave up a pair of runs. With one out, Jose Bautista singled and Russell Martin then walked. Josh Donaldson dumped a single in front of Jorge Bonifacio in right field to bring home a run, and Justin Smoak followed with an RBI single.
The Royals were not deterred. With one out, Salvador Perez doubled. After Mike Moustakas popped out, Brandon Moss walked and Alcides Escobar hit an RBI single.
Aaron Loup relieved Ryan Tepera, and Alex Gordon lined a single to center that scored Moss to make it 4-3. Jays manager John Gibbons summoned Jason Grilli to face Whit Merrifield.
Merrifield smashed a double to the wall in left and Escobar scored easily. Gordon raced home and beat the throw from cutoff man Troy Tulowitzki as the 38,848 fans roared their approval.
It looked bleak early despite a strong start from right-hander Jake Junis, who allowed two runs on six hits in 61/3 innings. He struck out four, walked two and hit a batter. It was the best of his five starts in his rookie season.
The Blue Jays got their two runs off Junis in the fourth inning. Former Royal Kendrys Morales was hit by a pitch and scored on a double by Tulowitzki. Toronto made it 2-0 when Tulowitzki moved to third on a flyout and scored on a wild pitch.
The Royals got a run back in the seventh.
Lorenzo Cain led off with a hustle double on a ball hit to center field. Eric Hosmer battled back from an 0-2 count and grounded to second, where Ryan Goins booted the ball as Cain took third.
Perez's single brought home Cain and cut the deficit to 2-1. Blue Jays starter J.A. Happ came back to retire Moustakas on an infield pop-up and strike out Moss.
Danny Barnes relieved and got Escobar to hit a fly to center fielder Kevin Pillar to end the threat.
The Royals also got a one-out double from Merrifield in the eighth inning, but he never advanced.
